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In a statement, Panini said: “If you have difficulty swapping, you can send off to Panini for your missing stickers.”

“The theoretical cost calculated by the academics assumes that the collector is in a bubble with no one to swap with or no access to the internet to send off to our missing stickers service.”

In 2016, he made the same calculations for the 680-space Euro sticker book. It was £374, meaning the cost has more than doubled.

While the Euro competition only had 24 squads – fewer than the World Cup – there were only two fewer stickers in the book printed two years ago.

“I can still recall the joy of finally completing my first Panini album as a young boy for the 1982 World Cup in Spain,” said Prof Harper.

“Filling an album has become progressively more expensive over the years since then, not just because there are typically more teams competing now, but because Panini have become more creative about allocating spaces.”

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